Should SEC tournament format change? Florida basketball coach Todd Golden offers one suggestion

Florida basketball made a run to the SEC Tournament finals last March, its first appearance in the tournament title game since 2014.

Florida Gators coach Todd Golden said the inspired run in Nashville as a six seed was good for the program. But there were some unintended consequences. First, Florida lost 7-foot-1 starting center Micah Handlogten to a compound fracture of his lower leg in the tournament finals game against Auburn, which turned out to be an 86-67 loss.

Then, after playing four games in four days the week before, UF opened NCAA Tournament play at a 7-seed with a 102-100 loss to 10-seed Colorado. Not having Handlogten as a fourth post player to rotate in and out hurt, especially when starting Florida forward Tyrese Samuel got in foul trouble.

"Playing four games in four days for us was tough," Golden said. "Obviously, Micah goes down in the last game. I didn’t feel like we got our legs back under us the rest of the tournament. Obviously, it didn’t affect us much offensively, but defensively, not that we were a great defensive team all year, but we were not ourselves in that game against Colorado."

Interestingly enough, Auburn also bowed out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament, as the 4th-seed Tigers lost 78-76 to 13-seed Yale. Meanwhile, two teams eliminated on Friday in the SEC Tournament — Tennessee and Alabama — reached the Elite Eight and Final Four respectively.

Should the SEC Tournament finals remain on Sunday? What Florida basketball Todd Golden thinks

Moving the SEC Tournament finals from Sunday to Saturday has been long advocated by former Florida coach Billy Donovan and current Arkansas coach John Calipari, to give teams an extra day of rest heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The SEC is one of only five conferences to hold its tournament final games on Selection Sunday, a list that includes the Big Ten, American Athletic, Ivy League and Atlantic 10.

"That’s going to be a challenge just because the SEC has a good time slot for the championship game on a Sunday, which is totally fine," Golden said. "I think we could do some different things on the front side of that to give the teams a little more time to rest."

More specifically, Golden suggested a built-in day-off for the tournament to avoid teams playing four games in four days. Golden said when he coached at San Francisco, a day off was used for that purpose in the West Coast Conference Tournament.

With the SEC expanding from 14 to 16 teams with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas, finding time for a day off would be an added challenge.

"It’s unique, for sure," Golden said. "But the other thing you need to decide is whether you want those games to matter for the NCAA Tournament. It clearly didn’t matter this year for the SEC.  And if we want to give our teams a chance for more good wins heading into Selection Sunday, moving it up would be beneficial.

"But it’s really hard to get 16 teams to Nashville and try to figure out a way to keep teams there for seven days. So, I think it’s an important conversation to have. I just don't have the right answer right now, to make it better.”